In purshasing and selling, it was once customary for traders to have two sticks, or one stick cleft into two parts, and to mark with a score or notch, on each, the number or quantity of goods delivered, the seller keeping one stick, and the purchaser the other. Before the use of writing, this, or something like it, was the only method of keeping accounts; and tallies were received as evidence in courts of justice. In the englishexchequer were tallies of loans, one part being kept in the exchequer, the other being given to the creditor in lieu of an obligation for money lent to government.

5. A tally shop. See Tally shop, below. Tally shop, a shop at which goods or articles are sold to customers on account, the account being kept in corresponding books, one called the tally, kept by the buyer, the other the counter tally, kept by the seller,
513
and the payments being made weekly or otherwise by agreement. The trade thus regulated is called tally trade. To strike tallies, to act in correspondence, or alike.

Please contribute to this project, if you have more information about this term feel free to edit this page